In the first year of Dianetics, L. Ron Hubbard speaks from behind a desk, sharing his ideas of an alternative to psychology.

Los Angeles, California. 1950.UCLA Digital Library

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Hubbard demonstrates the principles of Dianetics in front of an audience.

Los Angeles, California. 1950.UCLA Digital Library

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A woman in the crowd eagerly takes notes while watching Hubbard's demonstration.

Los Angeles, California. 1950.UCLA Digital Library

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A dejected Sara Northup pictured with the document she signed, written by L. Ron Hubbard.

Hubbard agreed to give her complete custody over their child as long as she would sign a document calling Dianetics the world's most important project.

Los Angeles, California. 1951.USC Libraries

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Hubbard with his third wife, Mary Sue, and their children, outside their mansion in Sussex, England.

1959.Chris Ware/Keystone Features/Getty Images

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The Scientology building in Hollywood, with an advertisement for Dianetics.

Shortly after divorcing Sara Northrup, Hubbard turned his Dianetics idea into a full church. In a letter to his secretary, Helen O'Brien, Hubbard suggested that, if they took the "religion angle," they could make "real money".

Los Angeles, California. Date unspecified.Los Angeles Public Library

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The massive mansion that Hubbard was able to purchase after forming his own religion.

Throughout his entire career as a pulp fiction writer, Hubbard only earned $10,000. After forming his own religion, he became a millionaire.

L. Ron Hubbard shakes hands with Rhodesian workers after being kicked out the country.

The original caption to the photo refers to Hubbard as the "white millionaire."

Salisbury, Rhodesia. 1966.Bettmann/Getty Images

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Hubbard packs up his bags after being chased out of another country.

Salisbury, Rhodesia. 1966.Bettmann/Getty Images

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Toronto Scientology president Caroline Charboneau holds up a copy of Dianetics during a police raid.

Authorities raided the facility when they found evidence that the Church of Scientology had stolen government documents during their Operation Snow White efforts to purge any damaging records about Scientology and Hubbard from government offices in several countries.

Toronto, Canada. 1983.Dick Darrell/Toronto Star via Getty Images

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Police stand outside of the Scientology office in Toronto during a raid.

The fallout of Operation Snow White led to raids of Scientology offices around the world, as evidence came out that they had been tampering with government documents.

In the pulp-printed pages of a May 1950 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, L. Ron Hubbard published, for the first time, a work that would one day grow into an entire religion: Dianetics. There, creased between space adventures and tales of alien invasion, were the pages that gave birth to Scientology.

Up until then, Hubbard had made his living as a pulp fiction writer and, in all his years of work, had earned only about $10,000. After a journey of personal exploration, he came upon the idea of Dianetics – a way he would “clear” people from all distress.

It wasn’t his first foray into religion. A few years before, L. Ron Hubbard had dabbled in the occult with his friend Jack Parsons. Together, the two had developed the “Babalon Working” ritual, a magical ceremony intended to bring forth an incarnation of the occult sex goddess Babalon.

Their experiments ended after Hubbard convinced Parsons to put up the funds for a fleet of yachts – and then bailed out of the country with the boats, the money, and Parsons’ girlfriend, Sara Northrup.

Northrup and Hubbard would soon get married, but their relationship would start to dissolve with the rise of Dianetics. As his wealth and fame started to grow, Hubbard started to have affairs and, in response, Northrup had affairs of her own.

As revenge, Hubbard had tried to report his wife as a communist and to get a doctor to declare her mentally insane. In the end, Hubbard granted her a divorce and full custody of the kids – under the condition that she would sign a paper saying that he was a “fine and brilliant man.”

With the divorce out of the way, Hubbard was free to transform Dianetics into a full religion. He wrote to his secretary, Helen O’Brien, that, if they registered a church, they could charge customers $500 for 24-hour auditing sessions. “That is real money,” Hubbard wrote. “Charge enough and we’d be swamped.”

O’Brien opted out, but Hubbard’s new wife, Mary Sue, was willing to help him start his religion. Hubbard became a millionaire. He bought his own mansion and a fleet of yachts, and started one of the most controversial religions of all time.

Scientology was born.

“[Robert Heinlein] thinks Ron went to pieces morally as a result of the war,” one of Hubbard’s friends, L. Sprague de Camp, wrote to Isaac Asimov, trying to understand how the man who was once their friend could have gotten wrapped up in all of this.